Maus: A Survivor's Tale #1

This groundbreaking graphic novel recounts the harrowing experiences of the author's father, Vladek Spiegelman, as a Polish Jew during the Holocaust. Art Spiegelman masterfully uses anthropomorphic animals—mice for Jews and cats for Nazis—to explore themes of trauma, memory, and survival, while also weaving in the strained relationship between father and son in the present day. As the first volume of a two-part work, it established the graphic novel as a serious literary medium and won a special Pulitzer Prize in 1992.